Hawking does movie
reviews? (No surprise he is a SciFi fan.) Will we even know when
some level of AI is incorporated into the “things” on the
Internet of Things?
Stephen
Hawking: 'Transcendence looks at the implications of artificial
intelligence - but are we taking AI seriously enough?'
…
Artificial-intelligence (AI) research is now progressing rapidly.
Recent landmarks such as self-driving cars, a computer winning at
Jeopardy! and the digital personal assistants Siri, Google
Now and Cortana are merely symptoms of an IT arms race fuelled by
unprecedented investments and building on an increasingly mature
theoretical foundation.
… Success in
creating AI would be the biggest event in human history.
Unfortunately, it might
also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks. In the
near term, world militaries are considering autonomous-weapon systems
that can choose and eliminate targets; the UN and Human Rights Watch
have advocated a treaty banning such weapons. In the medium term, as
emphasised by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee in The Second
Machine Age, AI may transform our economy to bring both great
wealth and great dislocation.
… Although we are
facing potentially the best or worst thing to happen to humanity in
history, little serious research is devoted to these issues outside
non-profit institutes such as the Cambridge
Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, the
Future
of Humanity Institute, the Machine
Intelligence Research Institute, and the
Future of Life Institute.
More specifically, the
Internet of Things is...
The
ABCs of the Internet of Things
There is no agreed-upon
definition, but there is a test for determining whether something is
part of the IoT: Does one vendor's product work with another's? Does
a door lock by one vendor communicate with a light switch by another
vendor, and do you want the thermostat to be part of the
conversation?
Here's the scenario: As
you approach the front door of your house, a remote control built
into your key unlocks the door. The door's wireless radio messages
the network, which prompts the hall light to turn on. The house
thermostat, which was lowered after you left for work, returns to a
comfort zone. Everything is acting in concert, which brings us to
the elegant definition of IoT by Paul Williamson, director of low
power wireless for semiconductor maker CSR: "A true Internet of
Things is coordination between multiple devices."
(Related) If your
house resets your thermostat, what ensures it sets it to 72 rather
than “Hotter?”
IoT
security requirements will reshape over half of global enterprise IT
security programs by 2020: Gartner
The power of objects in
the Internet of Things (IoT) to change
the state of environments — in addition to generating
information — will cause chief information security officers
(CISOs) to redefine the scope of their security efforts beyond
present responsibilities, according to Gartner.
… "This is an
inflection point for security. CISOs will need to deconstruct
current principles of IT security in the enterprise by re-evaluating
practices and processes in light of the IoT impact," said
Perkins. "Real-time, event-driven applications and nonstandard
protocols will require changes to application testing, vulnerability,
identity and access management (IAM) — the list goes on. Handling
network scale, data transfer methods and memory usage differences
will also require changes. Governance, management and operations of
security functions will need to change to accommodate expanded
responsibilities, similar to the ways that bring your own device
(BYOD), mobile and cloud computing delivery have required changes —
but on a much larger scale and in greater breadth."
(Related) An example
of a “Thing” (collision avoidance computers) overreacting?
U-2
Caused Widespread Shutdown of US Flights Out of LAX
"Reuters reports
that last week's computer glitch at a California air traffic control
center that led officials to halt takeoffs at Los Angeles
International Airport was caused by a U-2 spy plane still in use by
the US military, passing through air space monitored by the Los
Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center that appears
to have overloaded ERAM, a computer system at the center.
According to NBC News, computers at the center began operations to
prevent the U-2 from colliding with other aircraft, even though the
U-2 was flying at an altitude of 60,000 feet and other airplanes
passing through the region's air space were miles below. FAA
technical specialists resolved the specific issue that triggered the
problem on Wednesday, and the FAA has put in place mitigation
measures as engineers complete development of software changes,"
said the agency in a statement. "The FAA will fully analyze the
event to resolve any underlying issues that contributed to the
incident and prevent a reoccurrence."
Perspective.
Commentary
– This is what comes after search
by Sabrina I. Pacifici
on May 5, 2014
Christopher Mims -
Quartz: ”The average
person with an Android smartphone is using it to search the web, from
a browser, only 1.25 times per day, says Roi Carthy, head
of special projects at Tel Aviv-based mobile startup Everything.Me.
That isn’t just bad news
for Google, which still relies on ads placed along search
results for the bulk of its revenue—it also signals a gigantic,
fundamental shift in how
people interact with the web. It’s a shift upon which
fortunes will be made and lost Carthy knows how often people use
search on Android because once you install his company’s
Everything.Me software, it replaces the home screen on an Android
smartphone with one that is uniquely customized to you. And then
Everything.Me collects data on how often you search, plus a whole lot
else, including where you are, where you go, which apps you use, the
contents of your calendar, etc. This kind of data collection is key
to how Everything.Me works, and if Carthy and his investors, who have
already sunk $37 million into his company are right, it’s the sort
of thing many other companies will be doing on smartphones, all in
the name of bringing people what comes after search. Carthy says
that, in contrast to the paltry number of times users of
Everything.Me are searching the web each day, they’re engaging in
context-based interactions with their customized home screens dozens
of times a day. In other words, in the old days, if you wanted to do
something—navigate to the restaurant where you’ve got a dinner
reservation—you might open a web browser and search for its
address. But in the
post-search world of context—in which our devices know so much
about us that they can guess our intentions—your phone
is already displaying a route to that restaurant, as well as traffic
conditions, and how long it will take you to get there, the moment
you pull your phone out of your pocket.”
Perspective. (and
infographic)
Millennials
more likely to use mobiles when shopping
… a new study of
millennial shoppers by point of sale technology specialist Merchant
Warehouse shows that this particular generation
has higher expectations from the shopping experience and is more
likely to use mobiles in the process.
Nearly three-quarters
of millennials read reviews on their mobiles, and half of people in
this demographic use their mobile device to check into stores in
order to earn rewards. The rise of price matching websites has also
led to them being more likely to check prices whilst out shopping.
Some 44 percent also
say they scan QR codes in store to learn more about products and
manufacturers.
Retailers though don't
seem to be taking advantage of the opportunities this shift in habits
offers.
Probably true for all
professions, but is it true 5 years after graduation?
WSJ
– Law School Job Data Shows Wide Gulf Between Elite and the Rest
by Sabrina I. Pacifici
on May 5, 2014
“In an unforgiving
job market, graduates of top-ranked law schools have had a far easier
time landing full-time employment than their peers from the lower
ranks. That much is obvious. But how much easier? A Law Blog
analysis of the latest American Bar Association employment data
paired with the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings
suggests the gulf between the top 50 schools and the rest of the
bunch is huge. The unemployment rate for graduates from the top 50
is more than 60% lower than the unemployment rate for everybody
else.”
A rare, “not free”
App for my students.
WritePad
for iOS & Android Turns Your Handwritten Notes to Digital Text
If you still use
handwritten notes but like the idea of going paperless, your iPad can
bridge the gap between handwritten notes and digital text.
We have reviewed the
smart Wi-Fi pen, Livescribe which converts handwritten notes to
digital text, using special paper and pen. We have also reviewed
several iOS notebook apps that are great for handwriting and drawings
– but PhatWare’s WritePad for iOS ($4.99 iPad, $1.99 iPhone) and
Android ($4.99) is different.
It’s perhaps the only
app of its kind that converts your handwriting notes to digital text
as you write. This handwriting recognition software has gone from
strength to strength over the years, and it’s definitely worth
trying if you prefer to handwrite instead of type notes on a
touchscreen.
… Even if, like me,
you rarely handwrite anything anymore, WritePad is still a handy app
to have for when you want to quickly take lecture notes, brainstorm
ideas, and simply write without typing. It should work with any type
of stylus, and I found it pretty accurate for text conversion,
especially when using print handwriting.
Developers have
produced downloable PDF documentation for each version of WritePad,
available on PhatWare’s support website.
For my Statistics
students.
Electronic
Tolls Do a Lot More Than Speed You on Your Way
Electronic toll
collection has such a powerful effect in cutting highway traffic
congestion, and therefore vehicle emissions and air pollution, that
it leads to reductions in premature births and low birth weights, say
Janet Currie and Reed Walker of Columbia University. Introduction of
the E-ZPass system in New Jersey reduced prematurity and low birth
weight among mothers within 2 kilometers of a toll plaza by 10.8% and
11.8%, respectively, in comparison with births to mothers near
traditional toll plazas. Carbon monoxide, an important component of
engine exhaust, has been implicated in negative birth outcomes.
For my students.
How
To Deal With Your Job Search In The Internet Age
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